


Coffee Rings and Crayon Hearts

by slashy (slashmyheartandhopetoporn)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 04:22:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15134993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slashmyheartandhopetoporn/pseuds/slashy
Summary: step 1: make shiro teach kindergartenstep 2: make keith a single dad who works as a baristastep 3: put keith's kid in shiro's classstep 4: ?????step 5: profit!!!!Or, the one where Shiro teaches kindergarten. Keith makes the best vanilla lattes.Their paths collide in a couple of unexpected ways, leading to a saccharine sweet, vanilla-bean dream that also includes its fair share of crayons and glue sticks.





	Coffee Rings and Crayon Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> @lightningstrikes-art on tumblr posted a perf [single dad keith and kinder teacher shiro au comic](http://lightningstrikes-art.tumblr.com/post/175397797549/meet-cute-au-single-dad-keith-and-kindergarten) and i already [posted a headcanon about teacher shiro and barista keith](http://slash--y.tumblr.com/post/173705655887/building-on-my-teachershiro-idea-im-gonna) so i figured why not combine ALL the aus into this silly bit of fluff!
> 
> my life last year was basically a kinder teacher au without all the romance and with kids with way more behavior issues than shiro has to deal with (but lord knows i loved every one of my students, don't get me wrong) so this is a fun way for me to relive my life as a kindergarten teacher (i’m now teaching 2nd) while also making it 10x gayer and happier, instead of deeply exhausting and mentally taxing. teaching is hard, friends!!!

The first day Shiro stops in for coffee, it’s simply because he’s out of pods for the machine at work, and the cup of French press he made at home isn’t going to cut it for a Monday morning. So he walks into the artsy cafe, near-empty at 6:45 am, and makes his way to the counter.

“Good morning, how can I help you today?” asks the person behind the register.

“Good morning,” Shiro says. “May I have a medium triple latte with two pumps of vanilla please?”

They smile as they punch in his order. “What’s the name?”

“Shiro,” he says.

“It’ll be up in a minute. Thank you!”

“Thanks,” says Shiro as he drops a dollar into the tip jar, then he moves aside.

As he waits for his drink, Shiro takes in the rest of the cafe. He’s been in a few times before, but not so often he remembers all the details. He likes the vibe of the place, which sports comfy armchairs and local art on the walls. Nothing matches, but the colors are all muted shades of red, green, blue, and yellow. Music Shiro doesn’t recognize plays at a reasonable volume over the speakers. There’s an honor-system library at the back, and a donation jar for the local animal shelter. Shiro puts a dollar into that jar, too. His eyes land back on the baristas, who don’t wear uniforms, and Shiro watches them chat casually as they go about their business making drinks and keeping the space tidy. They all seem to get along, which makes Shiro smile. It feels like a good place to work.

The man steaming his milk looks familiar, but Shiro can’t place him. When said man spies Shiro tapping his finger along with the music and staring curiously, he gives Shiro a look that suggests he might recognize him too. But just as the guy seems about to speak, Shiro’s phone rings, loud and obnoxious. He looks down and sees it’s his partner teacher calling. He sighs, wondering what’s gone so wrong that Allie feels the need to call when she knows she’s going to see Shiro anyway in less than ten minutes.

“Hey, Allie,” he says. “What’s up?”

“Lotor has lost his mind,” she snaps, and Shiro knows he’s in for an earful if Lotor is involved.

“What’d he do that couldn’t wait the extra five minutes for me to get to work?” He watches the barista pull his shots and pour them into the paper cup followed by the steamed milk.

“He wants us to have all the Reading Diagnostics done by _this_ Thursday! Utterly ridiculous.”

Shiro can easily imagine the infuriated look on Allie's face. The news makes Shiro frown, too.

“That’s...a bit much,” he agrees.

The barista places the drink on the counter and tentatively calls, “Shiro?”

Shiro smiles and offers a silent wave. “Thanks,” he whispers.

On the phone, Allie barrels forward, irate. “‘A bit much’! It’s totally unreasonable. He forgets that in kindergarten most of our students have never taken a damn test before. It takes us far longer to administer than it does his first graders." Allie takes a breath. "I don’t know how he got to be our lead when he’s so incapable of focusing on anyone else but himself.”

“I’ll talk to him” Shiro says as he walks out of the coffee shop with a quick backwards glance at the barista.

“You better. He only ever listens to you.”

“That’s not true, Allie.”

Allie pauses. “Well. Sometimes it feels that way.”

Shiro snorts. “Only when you don’t get your way.”

“Just get over here and yell at him, Takashi.”

Oh, no. Now Shiro’s in trouble too.

 

~

 

“The _A_ says _aah_! The _A_ says _aah_! Every letter makes a sound, the _A_ says _aah_!”

Shiro can’t help but smile as the kids echo the words back to him to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell.”

“The _B_ says _buh_! The _B_ says _buh_! Every letter makes a sound, the _B_ says _buh_!”

The music is probably Shiro’s favorite part about teaching kindergarten. When he’d gotten his credential, he’d student-taught in a fifth grade room--which had been awesome, but not anywhere near as fun as kindergarten had turned out to be. And fifth grade had a distinct lack of songs. By comparison, in kindergarten it was considered a triumph if you could put any daily task to music, and Shiro had risen to the challenge.

As the entire class sings their way through the phonetic alphabet, Shiro claps his hands with the beat and bobs his head along. He’s found the more fun he has with his teaching, the more fun the students have with their learning. And if they’re enjoying themselves, then they’re more likely to retain more. It’s really a win-win situation, so Shiro always does his best to keep his energy up and his attitude positive.

When his morning starts by moderating a fight between Allie and Lotor, having that positive attitude becomes trickier. They’d worked it out--more or less--with a compromise that left all parties unhappy. The Reading Diagnostics would be completed by Friday, and the data would need to be entered by Monday. This displeased Allie who thought they’d need well into next week to complete the assessments properly, and it displeased Lotor because he actually felt they should have been done by _Wednesday_ and that he’d been generous in first offering Thursday as the due date. Shiro, caught in the middle, had been rather displeased by the whole situation, too.

But he had taken one look at his kids as they had lined up outside his room, backpacks on and smiles beaming, and had felt himself relax. It was still going to be a great day.

Now, as they sing together, Shiro knows he was right.

“The _Z_ says _zzz_! The _Z_ says _zzz_! Every letter makes a sound, the _Z_ says _zzz_!” As the song ends, Shiro claps his hands together one last time and then places them on his lap. He watches his students follow suit. “You guys sang so beautifully, the whole class just earned five marbles.” He reaches into the apron tied around his waist and pulls out the reward. “Faye, you are modeling the _exact_ right way to sit on the carpet. Would you like to put these in the jar for us?”

Faye Kogane smiles and stands from her seat in the middle of the carpet, and then walks up to Shiro to take the marbles. “Thanks, Mr. Shirogane,” she says as she places them in the jar besides Shiro’s chair.

He waits for her to sit back down before he begins to dismiss for morning recess. It’s a quick affair--his students have been practicing their line-making skills for a month now--and he’s proud to see how much they’ve already grown in the few weeks they’ve been in school. Sure, some of them came from pre-school, but not every pre-school is built the same.

Shiro walks them out to the play yard, complimenting the students walking especially nicely as they go. When he reaches the yard, Allie is already there with her class. Though she may have been furious moments before the school day started, none of it shows now with her students.

“Walk, don’t run, love,” she says as her class scatters to the jungle gym. “Mario, dear, I invite you to come back and try that again the right way.” She smiles kindly at Mario as he walks back to Allie and then right back out to the play structure. “Much better, Mario.”

Shiro smiles as Mario walks three-fourths of the way there, then skips the last little bit. He looks at Allie, who sighs.

“Listen,” she says. “He’s having an absolute morning. I’ll allow him this one little thing.”

“Problems at home?”

“You know what he’s like when he comes back from a weekend at Dad’s.”

Shiro frowns. “Inconsistency can be hard when they’re so young.”

Allie's pause is her agreement. “Anyway,” she says as she walks back towards her room, Shiro following. “How are yours doing this morning?”

“Well, Ava wouldn't stop crying about missing her mom for the first hour, and Elijah won’t stop pushing Elise.”

“So, business as usual?”

“You know it. Otherwise, it’s going pretty well. Especially for a Monday.”

Just before they enter the staff lounge, Allie pauses. “I wanted to thank you again for speaking with Lotor,” she says quietly. “I really do appreciate it.”

Shiro smiles at her. “You know I’m always happy to help.” He knows things between Allie and Lotor are tense after an unexpected kiss that was followed up by...absolutely nothing. Now they’re both walking on eggshells until one of them gets up the courage to talk about what happened. It’s driving Shiro a little crazy, but Allie's his friend and he wants to support her.

They part ways to handle their respective business before recess is over, but Shiro knows they’ll be catching up at lunch. He’s very grateful to have a partner teacher he works so well with. He knows not every teacher has that. Matt, for example, is partners with Lotor, and their work together is strictly pragmatic. There’s certainly no love lost.

Allie, on the other hand, has grown to be one Shiro’s best friends in the two years they’ve known one another. And she was an invaluable resource when Shiro first started working at Castle Academy, the school Allie's family actually founded. He knows he can count on Allie in all things, and that means the damn world to him.

As the whistle blows, signalling the end of recess, Shiro grabs the copies he’s just made and walks back out to the playground to collect his class. He takes a deep breath and gets ready to face the rest of the day.

 

~

 

The next morning, Shiro heads to the same coffeeshop again. He wonders if the man from yesterday will be behind the counter again. When he walks up to the register, the same person from the day before is there. This time, Shiro looks at the name on the tag. _Katie_.

“Hello again,” they say to him. “What can we get for you today?”

“Hi, Katie,” Shiro says. “Same as yesterday--”

He’s about to tell them what he’d like, but they're already punching it in to the register. “Medium latte, triple, two pumps vanilla. Coming right up, Shiro.”

“Thanks, Katie.”

“See you next time.”

He nods, then walks off to the side again to wait for his latte. The man is there, once again steaming the milk for Shiro’s drink. Shiro still can't figure out where he knows him from.

“Hey,” the man says. “Nice to see you again.”

Shiro tries not to flush. “Yeah, thanks. I like this place. Can’t believe I’ve just driven past it so many times before.”

The man smiles. “Well, glad you stopped by. I’m not lying when I say we’ve got the best coffee in town.”

“I believe it,” Shiro replies. "The drink you made yesterday was great.”

The guy laughs, and it sounds a little nervous to Shiro. “Hope this one doesn’t disappoint,” he says as he hands over the cup.

“Yo, Keith!” comes a voice from further into the cafe’s kitchen. “Are we out of the lemon scones already?”

The man, _Keith_ , closes his eyes for a moment. Shiro can hear him let out a breath through his nose. “Yeah, Lance. Hunk only made a half a dozen.” Keith looks back at Shiro. “Sorry, I have to go.”

“Of course,” Shiro says. “Man’s got to work. See you later, Keith.”

Keith smiles. Nods. “See you later, Shiro.”

As Shiro walks out of the coffee shop, he looks down at his cup and notices a small note.

_Have a good one! - K_

The handwriting is messy, worse than Shiro’s even. But something about the exclamation point is making Shiro feel a little fluttery. _Have a good one!_ Somehow Shiro knows he’s going to have just that.

**Author's Note:**

> i wasn't sure whether to post this, and it's been in my drafts for a month. but today is the day it'd be deleted, and i had to make a call. so here we are! hope you enjoyed :)
> 
> comments and shares are the lifeblood, loves. thank you for reading!!! <3
> 
> also also—if you teach, we should form a sheith-loving support group now that school is back in session for a lot of us lol. 
> 
> find me on tumbles: slashy--y.


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